Professional cyclist Alexander Kristoff from the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert team has won the second stage of the 34th Tour of Germany.

After a demanding 200.7 kilometers from Meiningen in Thuringia to Marburg in Hesse, the 35-year-old Norwegian was able to prevail in a large group sprint on Friday ahead of French champion Florian Sénéchal and Alberto Bettiol from Italy.

Max Kanter (Movistar) finished fifth behind 2016 Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet from Belgium and was the best German.

Georg Zimmermann, Kristoff's teammate, took tenth place.

Bettiol, third on the day, was able to take over the red jersey from the overall leader from his Italian compatriot Filippo Ganna, who won the prologue at the start in Weimar on Wednesday.

The previously leading time trial world champion fell behind Kristoff in third place.

However, the trio is at the same time, and then the driver with the overall best daily results is in the lead.

Kristoff had already won two stages in Germany last year, and in 2019 he was one of the day winners.

The sprinter, who also manages the mountains well, is also the serial winner of the Frankfurt cycle race in May.

Bora-hansgrohe with a tactical error

The third stage ends on Saturday after 148.9 kilometers from Freiburg on the 1207 meter high summit on the Schauinsland.

The focus there will be on Simon Geschke, who has lived and trained in Freiburg for many years.

Born in Berlin, he wore the mountain jersey for nine days in this year's Tour de France - longer than any German before.

Climbing specialist Emanuel Buchmann can also have hopes. After a complicated stage with many shorter climbs and frequent crosswinds, he finished 30th in the first group.

"It's going okay, I didn't feel bad," said Buchmann, but the climbs in the coming days "will be something else".

Meanwhile, Simon Geschke quarreled.

"We were expecting a controlled stage and wanted to be in the sprint, but it was more difficult than we thought," he said.

"I'm still not in the form I'd like, today I was pretty much on the limit."

Defending champion Nils Politt, who was third at the start in Weimar, lost a good three minutes and a lot of strength in 64th place.

A good 40 kilometers from the finish, the Bora-hansgrohe team "fell behind a bit, we had to close the gap again," said Politt.

"I lost a few grains there." The German team failed to send a rider into the breakaway group and the stage winner of last year's Tour de France had to pay the price for the two climbing specialists in the team.

The Deutschland Tour leads over five days of racing until Sunday over around 700 km with 11,000 meters in altitude from Weimar to Stuttgart, a highlight is the mountain finish at Schauinsland near Freiburg on Saturday.

The Deutschland Tour has been held with various interruptions since 1911, and there has been a new edition since 2018.